I got the Beatbuddy yesterday, and its great! I placed an order today for some studio monitors and due to get them on Tuesday. I notice there are two outputs alongside the headphones on the BB, L/R and mono in brackets under the L output.
My question is do I need a stereo cable to run out of the L/R jacks into the back of the monitors? Or can I run a normal instrument cable from the L (mono) into one of the inputs on the back of the monitor?
Would appreciate people’s advice!
Instrument cables should not be used between an audio source and powered monitors or an amp and speakers.
Safest to use speaker cable for mono connection between L & R outputs to speakers inputs.
I see loads of demo videos on Youtube with what looks like a guitar cable out from the BB!
The monitors are the Mackie CR4, which doesn’t have a mono input apparently so I can either use the Aux input on the front or the RCA cable perhaps? At least til I get to order a speaker cable of sufficient length as there’s no local music shops round here, have to get most stuff online.
persist may have been mistaken above. the output of the pedal is instrument level and therefore should use a coaxial cable, as in an instrument cable to drive a powered monitor or amplifier input. Speaker cables are unshielded balanced pairs of conductors such as zip cord or lamp cord. I just looked those speakers up and they have an amplifier built in with an 1/8 inch stereo jack for input. your best bet is to use the headphone output from the pedal into the speakers with an 1/8" to 1/8" cable that was listed as included with the speakers.
Ah thanks LeeMo that’s what I was thinking, or I could even use the RCA cable? Or shall I just leave that for things like the iPod and such? I have a pair of Logitech speakers that I’m upgrading from, earlier today I used the headphone out into the aux in of those and it worked fine, so I’m assuming I could get away with the same approach for these monitors, though the sound probably wouldn’t be as good.
I could very well be mistaken 
however, I stand by the point above about not using an instrument cable to connect an amp output to speakers. Sorry for causing confusion.
That is correct. From amp to unpowered speakers use a speaker cable. I may have been confused as to what you were saying before. I thought that you meant using unshielded speaker cable from Beat Buddy output to the input of an amplified speaker which would allow radiated noise into the signal.
Yeah its a powered speaker so a speaker cable wouldn’t be required? But what’s confusing me is the use of TRS (balanced) cable. Would I get less noise issues with a TRS than using an RCA or the 1/8"?
Or would I be fine to run with the aux in method or the RCA cable (same as I would an iPod) with the 3.5mm jack out the headphone out on the BB?
I connect my BB using the 1/8" phones jack with cables similar to these. No noise and the sound is great into my powered monitors. http://www.monoprice.com/product?c_id=102&cp_id=10218&cs_id=1021817&p_id=9768&seq=1&format=2
Where are they going from the BB? The headphone jack?
I think I can also get 2 TRS cables:
And run those from L BB to the L in the monitor, then repeat with the R side.
However if the 1/8" works noise-free then I can save myself a few quid on new cables!
If you’re going into anything that’s POWERED - amplifier, PA, powered monitor, snake on stage (going to PA) - anything that will be AMPLIFYING the signal, then you should use shielded cables. The more shielded the better. If they are are not shielded, then they act like antennae - picking up noise which then gets amplified. You may not notice it with short “shielded” speaker cables, but these are not really shielded in the same way. Shielded speaker cables are shielded to prevent TRANSMITTING noise, not from receiving noise. There’s a difference in the circuits. The signal coming OUT of an amp TO the speakers is not a line-level signal. It’s an already amplified power level signal with enough energy to activate the big magnets in the speakers. Headphone level outputs are kind of a grey area because they are actually very low level powered outputs since they are moving tiny speakers. They are so low level that they can be treated by most systems as line-level. That’s why you can plug them into the input of something like powered desktop speakers, but if you’re going into the aux input of an amplifier, you should still use shielded cables if possible.
As far as TRS (balanced) 1/4" cables, you have to be careful. Most 1/4" jacks are unbalanced. If a 1/4" jack is not specifically marked “Balanced” you should assume it’s not balanced. Using a balanced (TRS) 1/4" cable with an unbalanced jack MIGHT cause a shorting problem. This is particularly annoying because that very same cable MIGHT work with one unbalanced jack, but not with another, and of course, it will fit the plug, so there’s almost no way of telling what the problem is unless you happen to look at the plug and notice the ring.
He is using powered monitors. The input to the monitors is line level. An instrument cable would be fine. It seems odd to me the only item of information that I could not locate anywhere (and still can’t) about the Beat Buddy is whether the two 1/4" output jacks are TS or TRS, and when I find this post it’s a moderator who provides an answer, finally, to the unwritten mystery … and there are only two possible answers, and the moderator gets it wrong. Pretty impressive. I’ll assume a TS cable to my other devices which are expecting line level signals is the proper cable to use (including to powered speakers).
There are two TRS jacks on the BB, the headphones and the footswitch. All others for signal ins and outs are TS and not balanced.
Easy to check the outputs by using a TRS to (2)TS breakout cable. Plug the TRS into the BB output jack and alternately plug one of the TS plugs on the other end of the cable into the input of an amp or powered speaker. Only one of the TS plugs will yield signal as there is no connection to the ring of the TRS in the BB’s output jack. If the outs were TRS and balanced or stereo, both TS plugs of the breakout cable would have signal.
The BB inputs can be checked in a similar way again using the TRS to (2)TS breakout cable and inputting a signal into either of the TS ends of the cable. One of the TS cable ends will yield a strong signal. The other TS cable end ‘may’ yield a weak signal due the proximity of the tip and ring in the TRS plug (capacitive coupling leakage), but not a strong signal.
Instrument or ‘patch’ cables with TS connectors that are shielded should be typically used to connect the BB to an amp, mixer, or powered speaker(s). TS to RCA cable could be used if the mixer or powered speaker(s) has those for inputs.
Wait, the headphone jack and the signal output jacks are both passive outputs? I know the headphone output is TRS.
I’d think the 1/4” outputs go through a separate circuit containing a signal boost.
A reasonable assumption but I don’t think the pedal has any built-in signal boost from the 1/4" outputs. If I’m wrong, I’m sure Brennan will chime in.